Upper Spirit Mountain Nordic was Pisten Bully groomed as of 10:30 this morning, with a single track and skate deck. Good skis for now - the new snow, somewhat dry, is providing good cover. Today's high winds will create some drifting on short sections of the 5 and 10K loops; drifts should be minimal and passable.

Photos:

(Larry Mishkar)

Since this trail was just down the road from Magney-Snively, and we still had energy, we skied the intermediate loop. The trail had been groomed Sunday morning. The track was in pretty good condition, despite looking like it was heavily used. The skate lane looked chopped, beat up. Another fun trail.

Photos:

(Darren Blankenship)

All trails were groomed to skate deck/classic track this morning. The cut-offs were not groomed, as backing and the tight turns required to do them would eat up the thin base. Last night's snow netted the trails 3" of fluff. And thank you to the skiers who asked where to ski so soon after grooming! Always best to wait 1-2hrs after a groom to ski to allow the snow to setup. Ski too soon and you'll leave trenches.

Photos:

(Larry Mishkar)

On Monday a single grooming pass with the Pisten Bully was made on the 3/5K trails. This moved the single track set closer to the center of the trail to provide a firmer track while narrowing the skate deck slightly. The 10K trail was not groomed on Monday but did see a double wide pass of the roller/comb on the previous Friday. The right hand track is skied in. Due to thin snow conditions our grooming is less than in previous years. The Campground Loop is still solid with deep track sets and a wide, firm skate deck. Grooming plans: Upper Spirit Mountain Nordic will be groomed double-track, system wide, on Friday. This will eliminate the skate deck as we prepare for the Nordic Spirit Ski Race on Saturday. Re-grooming to the normal skate/classic layout will happen if there is remaining snow quality and depth. I would expect to see the double-track set remain for some time based on the current short-term forecasts. Our current base is a delicate 6".

(Larry Mishkar)

Spirit hasn't been groomed since the last snowfall. There are skied in tracks, which were OK. I ended up going over to Magney...

(Elaine Nelson)

It was a pretty day, but the trails are not in great shape. Both the skate deck and the tracks had a lot of areas with tilled up dirt. It surprised me but Spirit had about half the snow that Hartley does, just a few miles away. I would use rock skis and not worry or B skis and just be a little careful.

(Adam Schwartz-Lowe)

Trail has a lot of leaves and dirt groomed into the snow. Skied the 10K loop. Trail is well packed. The connector to Magney-Snively is in good shape.

(Tyler Henkels)

The 10k and 5k loops had soft skate decks, uneven lanes, and some weeds sticking through. The 3k loop and campground loop were much better. Campground loop had a firm deck under the fresh inch of snow. Could use a groom to even everything out. Classic tracks looked deep and good though!

(Ellie Sin)

I enjoyed my first ski at Spirit this season. The first 5k (of the 11k) had a little bit of drifted snow and didn't seem as freshly groomed. I didn't ski the last 6k (went to Magney instead). The classic tracks looked really nice and I was kicking myself for bringing my skate skis today (no pun intended!). There was some dirt and debris in the middle of the trail which was a little hard to avoid (particularly on the uphills).

(Elaine Nelson, Skinnyski.com Race Team)

All trails are open for skate and classic skiing. Watch for leafy areas - the deer are digging for acorns directly in the trail. Snow is very thin at the Finnish Complaint Hill sign due to wind erosion. Reitler's Corner in the Campground Loop has a double set of tracks as a combo set of classic and skate doesn't work thru this narrow corner. For most of the trail system this is the first groom of the season.

Photos:

(Larry Mishkar)